Because of music's inherent abstractness, it is the most fundamentally subversive of the arts. It says something very specific, eliciting overpowering responses, and yet it has the luxury of being able to claim that it has said nothing at all.

"Wild" is a daring, inspiring film of one brave woman's self-overcoming and the journey she had to go on to own her life, to embrace all aspects and every minute of it, and release the "woulda-shoulda-coulda-didn'ts" that our minds are wont to create.

Freedom of inquiry and thought must surely encompass the right of students to discuss and think about ideas, including illiberal ideas. The idea that a "Nietzsche Club," in particular, is not appropriate for a serious university (one with several Nietzsche scholars on its faculty, ironically enough) is astonishing.

Religion is a tool that performs a service for us, something we utilize for our own spiritual development. Unfortunately, we sometimes end up getting used by the tool! But that's not the fault of religion.

Truth consists of moments. And the despot returns when, in the name of that ultimate truth whose itinerary he claims to know, he says to the laggards, that is, to those of us who commit the fatal error of clinging to what has just gone out of date: "Silence! Heed me and obey," or simply "Get moving!"